Many organizations such as larger business entities providing any sort of network services to clients (e.g., employees or customers), must constantly monitor the accessing and consumption of their network resources. There are systems available that can selectively provide clients with access to the services performed by various network devices such as printers, copiers and facsimile machines. One exemplary system employs a job server to act as a buffer between the devices and the clients for filtering out unauthorized use. In particular, the job server intercepts the clients' service requests and consults an authorized usage list before enabling the service request to reach the device to be carried out. Although these systems work, maintaining such a job server may prove to be difficult, costly and labor-intensive as it involves frequent attention and specialized knowledge.
Furthermore, job servers are often unaware or are incapable of controlling the particular features of a device (e.g., a network printer) such as full-duplex or color printing, and thus are forced to adopt an all or nothing policy of simply granting or denying access to devices. But an organization may also desire controlling access to particular features within the services provided by its network devices.
For instance, an organization that maintains a network printer for use by its employees may want to make particular printing options unavailable to one or more groups of employees. The printer may be capable of generating monochrome prints at a rate of 50 pages per minute while generating color prints at 12.5 pages per minute. The organization may want to grant all of its employees unfettered access to the printer for generating monochrome prints since they can be generated relatively quickly and are generally inexpensive. On the other hand, the organization may want to restrict generating color prints to high-level managers only since they take relatively longer and are generally more expensive to generate.
Additionally, an organization that cannot restrict unnecessary utilization of particular device features consequently may need to purchase additional devices to maintain a desired level of service. For example, an organization may need to purchase two network printer devices to service a department where the resources of one properly managed device could suffice. Thus, a need clearly exists for an inexpensive, reliable and convenient way of controlling access to the various services provided by an organization's devices and the particular features available within those services.